Military Years

West Point Teaching (1)

2011-08-11T20:01:55-06:00

And so Captain David Hughes, wife Patricia, and 1 year old son David arrived at West Point during the Academic Summer of 1955.

To our joy we were not only authorized on-post Housing, but also in one of the two story, 1890s wooden buildings right on Thayer Road south of the Academic Buildings and the looking out eastward over the Hudson River. Beautiful view.

Now of course that building had housed 1 First Lieutenant and his family on both floors - the entire house in the 1890s. Now it housed two Captains and their families - one upstairs - we Hughes's - and one downstairs. (by the time we visited the post in the year 2000, the same building housed two Majors, and their families)

Beggers can't be choosers. We were delighted. We had an outside deck, were high above the road that went between the Headquarters and Academic heart of West Point, and the Thayer Hotel and the South Gate a mile away.

So here it is "Quarters 9B" at West Point which would be our home for the next 3 years.

Actually, this picture is taken in 2004, when I returned officially for the 3d time. The upper deck was not screened in in 1955- it was open. Nice in the summer, pretty chilly in the winter.

And in case you wonder what a stairs-climb we had to get to our high up upstairs quarters, in fact we never came in or out that front way, but from the rear, which is just a few steps up from ground level, with a road just a few paces behind the house, and with our garage across the alleyin the rear.

Rear view. To the side of the house was a very large grassy area - our 'yard.' Twas a great place for very young David to play in as he grew up from 2 to 5 years old at West Point.

Settling In at USMA

So while Patsy set up our new home - our third in 3 years - I started the routine of English Department briefings and orientations all instructors go through before Academics start in the fall.

West Point Teaching (2)

2011-08-17T07:55:23-06:00

As was the usual case for new English Department instructors, I was assigned to teach Fourth Class - or Plebe (freshmen) - English.

Such classes were held every school day, at either 1PM or 2PM depending on which half the Corps was scheduled at each time.

Of course that was the first hour after the noon meal - lunch. The question was whether the cadets in class would doze off.

Now the reader should understand something not obvious, but rather significant, in the way West Point selects and puts instructors before cadets. As I detailed in my relating how I reacted and to officer-instructors when I was a cadet, this time I was the teacher.

West Point's Unique Educational Philosophy

The goal which underlies the whole philosophy of West Point as a 'Military Academy- is to endeavor to graduate soldier-scholars. Not just Soldiers OR Scholars. And that is one of the primary reasons - which held true for the majority of the 200 year tradition of West Point until recent years - that in the vast majority of cases the Instructors in all academic subjects, have been commissioned military officers, and preferably graduates who held at least a Masters degree in the subject, and were competent teachers of that discipline whatever their military rank or length of service. The principle exception was in Foreign Languages, which had some civilian instructors.

That philosophy has changed - as much by the urging of the Board of Visitors as by internal reflection since the 1980s - that civilians should be West Point instructors too.

But there was a good reason for relying on very well educated (and most often talented in-their-field graduates as instructors), turning over every 3-5 years. Not the least of which was the fact that most instructors were not just lifetime-appointment older scholars, but backed up by a cadre of younger and energetic officer 'soldier-scholars'.

By selecting officers/graduates in their first 10 years or so of commissioned service - meaning they had served 'in the Army' in the field (whatever their branch of service), and thus knew and were experienced in the hierarchy of military service - including if the timing was right - having served in the Army during time of war, they would bring a perspective to the academic topic, a civilian could not. For after all, West Point is there to provide officers to lead American soldiers and other officers in time of war. So instructors become role models for cadets, even if they are teaching a Liberal Arts discipline.

I do not care for that recent change - permitting civilians with no military experience to instruct cadets - for it dilutes the 'example' and model for cadets being taught by graduates who themselves are 'scholar- SOLDIERS' and not just academics. So when I taught cadets for 3 years 1955-1959 I provided, in my person, that model of Soldier-Scholar.

For a number of reasons, that Soldier-Scholar model in my person had an interesting effect on impressionable cadets I taught that did not end when their 'English Courses' were done. In fact for many of them it lingered and came back 50 years later.

Sonnets and Silver Stars

The first emphasis for the Plebe English classes is in writing. The target was to teach how to write good Expository prose - with many graded and marked up writing assignments right from the beginning. The plebes dove in. And the reading assignments, as one would imagine, were on Style. I dimly remember that 'Strunk's classic 'Elements of Style' was a primary book to be read and consulted by cadets struggling to master written English.

And of course one learns how to write by rewriting. So for many a class I collected their papers, marked them up, awarding grades that ranged from below passing 2.0 to excellent 3.0. And then made them do it over again if they dropped lower than 2.3 or so.

Additionally, all we officer-instructors, as a matter of policy, wore our uniforms to class. That fact did not particularly make an impression on plebes so long as the class was just on the mechanics of good writing.

But it was the minute when the English Course was in reading and then writing and writing about English literature that the soldier-scholar point got driven home to impressionable plebes.

I seemed to have made a strong impression on cadets in my class that stayed with many of them for a long time. When I entered my first plebe cadet classroom, there were those cadets who thought of West Point as just the place where they were getting - besides a free military education - i.e. to become a scholar, or generally educated looking forward - after their obligatory military service - to success in a civilian job or profession. And war, except for a handful of very senior officers, is a young man's job.

While there were yet other plebes, some of whom were excellent athletes or ones with a motive to be a career soldier, sometimes from a military family, that thought they were there to make them only into an 'officer-soldier.'

It was when I, just a few years older - 27 - than the new cadets (who could enter West Point until they were 24) , came into the classroom, wearing my uniform with an Infantry Captain's bars, with a brace of very impressive combat ribbons - including a Distinguished Service Cross, 2 Silver Stars and 2 Purple Hearts beneath a Combat Infantry Badge above my left breast from just one war - presenting me as a model 'soldier whose business had been in winning wars, specifically in my case the Korean War.

So when I commenced to teach them, quote to them, and probe the depths and meaning of Shakespearean Plays and Sonnets - that the REAL synthesis of 'Soldier-Scholar' at West Point - and thus the Academy's central focus, became apparent to all of them.

In essence I seemed to embody the cadet conclusion that "If Captain Hughes with such a recent and real combat record actually knows, enjoys, and understands Shakespeare, I guess being a West Point graduate is more than being just a soldier. Or just a scholar.

So West Point aims to produce a commissioned Soldier-Scholar. I was one such product. And since I had shown, while I was a cadet, 10 years earlier an inborn (perhaps from my Welsh bard DNA) skill at writing and composition, even poetry, I was selected to go to graduate school to earn an academic Master of Arts degree, and then teach for at least 3 years at West Point.

Ever since the end of World War II, where graduates had to understand, lead, and command, an 8 million man Army which had to be guided - and commanded by high rank West Point graduates in the broadest array of 'non-combat' skills and fields - management, economics, science, nuclear fission, industrial policy, politics, law, medicine, international relations, mass psychology, world religions, press, journalism, and media, the Army realized why it was in its interest to produce officers who were academically versed in one or more of those fields.

The series of modern custodians of West Point's pedagogical philosophy - Superintendents, Deans, and Commandants knew that officers expected to rise in rank to the highest US Military office, needed to be very 'broadly' educated. Within which the Liberal Arts was as important as Math, Science, Law, Government or Military History.

I am not sure what lasting contribution I made to the Class of '59 in English studies, but I sure got cadets to appreciate the importance of being a well read scholar as well as a good soldier-leader, as a West Point graduate.

West Point Teaching (3)

2011-08-18T10:22:21-06:00

Life on the Post

Now Life on the Post at West Point was pretty normal for Patsy and I and our still quite young David. With its Post Exchange, Commissary, Thrift Shop - always of interest to Patsy - and with a very stable population, life felt 'small town community' pleasant.

In our 1890s home, we were only a short walk to an Apartment building where those married families without children lived, and the Cadet and Post Library, or 'Grant Hall' - where friends or family of cadets could meet - and from where the parade ground was easily accessible. While car parking was always tight, Patsy could walk to the Plain and enjoy the frequent Cadet Parades.

Right below our home was Thayer Road that linked the Cadet area with the Thayer Hotel and South Gate, about a mile further south. Cadets who were to march in parades in New York or Washington DC often practiced by marching the mile length of Thayer Road. Very young David really enjoyed watching those practice marches right from the sidewalk across from our house - as he appears in the photograph below.

And always at 5PM, the Canon would boom, while a bugler played Retreat, and the high-masted flag would come down from less than a mile north of our house. All auto traffic was expected to stop within earshot of that daily ceremony, occupants exit the vehicle, and male military to salute while others put their hand over their heart.

Many a New York civilian family driving through the post on the main road that loops around the parade field and next to Trophy Point where the canon and bugler are, got caught in the stopped traffic, and somewhat alarmed everyone who then bailed out of their car and stood, sheepishly, as the flag went down.

They thus learned a lesson in military, West Point, and the 200 year long tradition of the end of duty day ceremony of 'Retreat.'

In the morning what were called 'The Hell Cats' - the drum, bugle section of the Academy Band played at 6:00 AM Reveille while the flag went up. All to get the Cadet Corps moving. But without a canon fired in the morning we could not really hear it in our quarters, down Thayer Road, as we could Retreat.)

Patsy was able, as soon as we got settled, to find where Cindy and Charlie Adams - also in the English Department - lived. They lived in rather obsolete set of frame quarters at the far end of the growing-population Post called 'The Gray Ghosts'. But even that was only 10 minutes by car away.

So Patsy and Cindy, with their children, often drove to antique stores, and local sights with their kids.

Early American History

The Academy itself had plenty of Revolutionary War Era historical sites, markers, and monumnts to see - though generally they were visited when we officer faculty members, who learned their history when we were cadets were around.

Especially the 'Old' Chapel and very old West Point Cemetery - which dated back to the 1775 Revolutionary War - was worth several visits.

One of the most interesting series of plaques is high on the wall of the Old Chapel. Each plaque contains the Rank, Name, and inclusive dates when that General was Commander of West Point.

There is a Plaque which marks the time when traitor General Benedict Arnold commanded West Point in 1776. BUT while the word 'Major General' is there, and his birth year, the NAME has been gouged out! No American Traitor, even though he commanded West Point, will be honored on This Post!

West Point Teaching (4)

2011-08-19T17:22:42-06:00

Another Bundle of Joy

In time Patsy became pregnant again. Which pleased us both, and especially Patsy, who once before we were married said she wanted 'Lots of Kids'.

It remained to be seen how many 'lots' would be, but right here in the hospital just 100 steps from our home at the United States Military Academy at West Point, our second child would be born. A true labled 'Army brat' if there was one.

So, without fanfare or problems, Mary Rebecca Hughes was born, inconveniently, at 4AM on March 28th, 1957 - a year and a half into my 3 year instructional tour at West Point.

More photos are at Married Life (7)

Mother Hughes Visits

My mother, Helen, still working in Denver and living alone, wanted to see her grandchildren. So we supported her travel out from Colorado, and she was able to make a nice visit to the growing Hughes clan at West Point.

One of the things really stuck in my mind happened during that 1957 mother's visit to us. She had her own room in our quarters, with a window that looked out across the Hudson River to the east of our home from high on our hill. Most days that was a lovely view in the sunshine. And she could see the sizable ships going up and down the Husdon either coming from, or going to, Albany.

The picture below shows, besides baby Rebecca on our overlook Porch, the Hudson River below.

But sometimes also, the whole scene was foggy, especially in the spring.

The Real West Point Rock

One night we had all retired to our rooms about 9 or later, when we all could hear the fog horns on a large ship honking away on that narrow waterway. Nothing unusual in that.

But that night the fog horns seemed more insistant than ever, and I could hear my mother chuckling to herself over the sound so close by.

Suddenly the house shook and trembled - twice.

A cargo ship had gotten lost in the fog wandered over too far, hit and sheared off what is called the South Dock. A quite small dock with its pier sticking out into the river about 100 feet. Anchored in the bed rock that connected it to our house.

The ship's prow had ridden up several feet on the rock beside the river, and then slid back into the river.

Now if anyone doubted that West Point indeed sits on a huge - largely hidden - granite 'point' all they would need is a earthquake meter reading that night and they would have recorded the weight of a large vessel running aground on that granite mountain, and causing the ground to shake all the way - perhaps 300 feet higher - and higher behind our house to rattle it!

The accident did no great damage to the steel ships prow. It simply backed into the river, dropped anchor while the crew inspected the damage, and saw the wrecked dock in the morning, As we did, walking down to the Thayer Road level and peeking over the low stone fence down on the once-dock.

I really remember that night's proof of just how big. and long the granite "Point" was, and my mother's chuckle when she heard the mighty ship run aground after the fog horn.

Exciting night.

And proving that West Point is one very large Rock, perhaps a mile long, parallel to the river on its eastern side. Which placement produces the narrow twice-turning Hudson River channel down below the high "Point' from which cannons could readily directly fire at ships. Which 'Point" even the British Navy dared not challenge during the 1776 Revolution.

But of course, winter sometimes snowed late. And the academic building, where I taught, reminded me that Cadet life and education goes on too.

West Point Teaching (5)

2011-08-24T04:35:44-06:00

Sections by Merit and Progress

During the three years that I taught English at West Point there was great stress on grouping cadets by their relative grades - their merit in the subject - and assigning them and the instructors by such merit. All plebes were arranged into "Sections" 1 to whatever, with no more than 10-12 cadet-students per section, therefore per classroom.

In English, part of the purpose was to insure that plebes who were struggling to master expository writing - the core competance they simply had to master to an acceptable level - were grouped together in the 'lower' numbered sections, and their officer-instructor spent correspondingly more class time, writing assignments, rewriting graded papers time, and where needed 'coaching' time even outside class.

While cadets with greater aptitude - or having benefitted from better undergraduate education, tended to be grouped together, and their instructors could dwell on the more advanced skills of writing and studying superior samples of composition.

Coaching Goats

Those cadets, whatever the subject, were called either 'goats' - lower graded work - or 'hives' - brightest and most academically successful. While there has been a long tradition of cadets coaching other cadets - whether 'hive' roommates or others who, often to keep promising 'goat' athletes at the Academy whose collegiate team sports potential is greater than his academic ability - officer instructors - as a matter of self-determined duty sometimes spent large amounts of time coaching such cadets, irrespective of their other potential value to the academy.

West Point is one of the rare 'colleges' where professional officer-instructors spend large amounts of time individually tutoring on their 'own' time and without being compelled to by Department Heads - so long as that cadet shows a real determination to 'make it' through West Point and graduate.

Mindful of the subjects I struggled with as a Cadet, while excelling in English, I felt a strong obligation to help -coach - deficient cadets who were 'Turned Out' which meant that they were compelled to take a special Examination a week or later from the end of the Term in which they were below the grades required to continue on. If they passed that 'Turn Out' exam (normally graded by a different instructor - to retain objective standards to be demonstrated) they simply went on. Fail and they were expelled.

I worked with one such plebe during his nominal Christmas Leave (and mine) after he had been 'turned out' in English. Going to an open classroom, grading the paper I required of him, making him do it over and over and over. Doing everything I could to get his writing coherent. I even visited him in his barracks room where his two classmates were present. In short, I went all out for him while never giving him the slighest slack in his written papers. He had to prove his ability or fail.

It worked. He passed the 'turn-out exam.' He could continue to attend the academy and move on in his studies.

Payback

I never even remembered his name as he and I went on, in 1955. I continuing to teach for two more years at West Point.

To my astonishment, 44 years later, 30 years after I had retired from active service, when I was Nominated in 2004 by a group of graduates to be made a 'Distinguished West Point Graduate' I saw that this same struggling plebe, who went on to graduate, serve a full Army career contributed his voice to my nomination.

He wrote a long, and impassioned endorsement of my nomination on the basis that I typified what it means to be a 'West Pointer' including giving a damn how the lowest ranking cadet or soldier fares.

His letter was included in the final record of that successful nomination. He ended with:

"After writing four published books, several published articles, and after having my ability to present complex ideas in writing noted as one of my unique skills on twenty-five years of officer efficiency reports, I am concerned that if Dave Hughes were to read this, he would take out his red pen.

Court Prisk
USMA 1959" "

He was right. But that incident typified how we, not just me, as West Point graduate instructors, took our job very seriously - with our focus on cadet academic progress, not on our academic accomplishments, or publishing, or academic promotion. And my combat record had nothing to do with the interaction between Cadet Prisk and Captain Hughes. It was all a matter of his learning to write, and write well if he was to become a comissioned officer in the United States Army.

The West Point Academic way.

West Point Teaching (6)

2011-08-24T06:13:27-06:00

Other Duties

Unless an officer-instructor - during the summer non-academic months - was still working at completing his Masters degree, or pursuing a Doctorate, he was assigned other duties too.

They included helping out with summer Tactical Training of cadets, under the supervision of Tactical Department officers. In effect becoming added 'Tacs' for summer training.

I spent two months, during 1956 assisting, in the field such training.

But one other unusual task was given me in May of 1957. I was tasked to be the 'Aide' to the Oldest Living Graduate - General Henry Hodges, class of 1881.

Always the very oldest graduates try to come to West Point during 'June Week' - graduation week. They are honored as the head of the 'Long Gray Line' and at Alumni Services, which includes a march by every graduate attending around the 'Plain' - Parade Ground - while the Oldest Living Graduate leads, whether walking or in a walker or wheel chair to the Statue of Sylvanus Thayer - the 'Father of the Military Academy" and, together with the Cadet First Captain, lays a wreath at the foot of the statue.

Then all the Alumni graduates go into the Bleachers on the Parade Field and witness a full Cadet Parade - where the most senior classes at their 25th or later Reunions, 'Take the Honors' at the parade.

Henry Hodges, the oldest member of his class still alive and able to attend - was 96. He was attended by his daughter - in her 80s - who knew just what he needed and did not need. My wife also accompanied them during the two days he was in attendence. Army wives have duties too!

Henry is on Patsy's arm. Two other very old grads walk with him toward the Parade Field.

Association of Graduates Assembly Magazine

Listening to the old Major General who commanded a World War I Division, and had been a young lieutenant in the moutains of Colorado as an Engineer officer in 1885, when he was summoned to come back to West Point and teach Mathmatics, was interesting.

But I was given another task related to this one. Every year an article, either short or long is written for the Association of Graduates Assembly Magazine by the 'scribe' of every class. It reports on what classmates and their families are doing now.

Since very old Henry Hodges had no more living classmates -to write about by him, the Association asked me to research the Class of 1881 and write about that class.

THAT was fascinating. One man designed the lighting system for the Statue of Liberty. Another classmate, Captain Andrew Rowan 'Carried the Message to Garcia' in 1898, spurring a famed essay by Elbert Hubbard that reached 40 million copies, touting the can-do spirit of the young captain who did the President's bidding. Another founded Georgia Tech University.

But the most fascinating 1881 graduate to me, became the Adjutant General of the Army, Enos Crowder who when he was asked by the President to figure out how to raise the Army in order to fight in Europe in World War I he rose to the occasion. Various forms of conscription in Europe failed.

Crowder's understanding of the American political character was so deep, he was able to write the law that became the "Draft."

For he invented the local 'Draft Board' which - in a largely rural America, was to be made up of local men who would decide, legally, which of the young men in their county or town would go to war, and which would not.

He thus put the grave responsibility on the shoulders of the lowest local American political entity - the voter, instead of the bureaucracy in Washington. Or yo have men be selected by a pure chance lottery. Which is why the Draft worked far better for World War I and II than trying to decide matters in Washington.

My Article on behalf of the Class of 1881 was published by the Association of Graduates in its 1960 Assembly.

West Point Teaching (7)

2011-08-24T08:37:27-06:00

The Endless Joke on Me About Moby Dick

As I entered my second and third year teaching English to Cadets, increasingly the assigned studies for 2d year - Yearlies - got into Great Literature.

Yearlings, out from under the 'Dumbsmack' subordination of Plebes, began to be more lively in class, discussing, arguing, and wrestling with the idea that great literature - plays, novels, short stories - while entertaining - contain profound human truths within their metaphors.

That was a hard to swallow idea for literally-minded, practical cadets first being exposed to great literature, and how it works its magic

At one point the assignment, spreading over many reading assignments was Herman Melville's classic and very lengthy and often turgid 'Moby Dick.'

Some of the cadets in my class just could not believe that tale had anything to do with anything except being a superb "Fish Story.' The various interpretations scholars attributed to it - a fable about good and evil, the contest by man - Ahab - against overpowering nature or God - the Whale, did not go down well with many a practical minded cadet. Of course my task was for them to see in the story more than just the tale of the chase.

Among Yearlings that passed through my class there were those outspoken ones who just refused to accept any other interpretation than it being a Fish Story. And out of my earshot they accused me of seeing things that were not there in the literal text.

In fact, it became such a joke in the Class of '59 that, 45 years after we had separated going our various professional ways - when I surfaced logging into a graduate discussion 'Forum' online - open only for graduates - a number of Class of '59 retirees jokingly harangued me by claiming, loudly, 'Moby Dick is ONLY a fish story."

Even when my Nomination for Distinguished Graduate circulated in 2004, and the Class of '59 heartily endorsed me, the joke forever was there "Old Dave Hughes still thinks Moby Dick is MORE than a Fish Story!"

I even heard it from retired 2 and 3 star general officers who had been 'my' cadets from that class!

Dante and Cadet Souls

In many of the classes, I endeavored to integrate art and even music, into studying the great works.

Having built, at home, an excellent high-fidelity early-technology set of Bozak speakers, turntables, and amplifiers to play Patsy's and my music on, I hit on one possible use for both art AND music to reach the sensitivities of cadet minds.

The Great Work that was to be studied for part of a Term taken by Senior - 1st Classmen - Cadets was The Divine Comedy - Dante Aligheri's Inferno.

That is, even in well annotated English translation, heavy going for college young minds. At the same time those minds exist in equally young virile bodies, greatly limited in their outlet for sex while at the 'monastery' that is West Point.

So those same junior and senior cadets cadets are freer than during their first two years, to go off post, in their own cars, or with others, and visit New York City, where their social behavior is far less scrutinized.

So, within the many chapter readings they were assigned, as Virgil is led down through the circles of Hell to witness the wages of a sinful life, I assigned them the classic illicit love story of 'Francisco da Rimini' Wherein the Paolo who was supposed to perform a marriage by proxy for his deformed brother, fell in love with unsuspecting Fransesca while reading about Lancelot and Guinevere and - as the line goes in Dante 'They read no more that day' And were murdered by the brother.

In Dante they were condemned to one of the Rings of Hell eternally because they died before they had a chance to repent.

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky turned that into a very well known Symphonic poem, whose sound mirror the lover's eternal damnation.

And artist Gustav Dore rendered the entire story in a series of classic black and white drawings.

So what I did was select the Monday after many cadets could have visited the flesh-pots of New York to expose them to the moral lessons art and music can be taught through the meaning of great written literature.

I set up in the 18th Century lecture room with high, vertical arrangements of wooden seats which place the student directly opposite a towering screen behind the instructors lecturn. I put my Bozak Speakers behind the cadet class sitting in the gloomy lecture room and then projected the whole series of Dore engravings on the huge screen even above cadet heads, like this one:

in pace with the Music's rendition of the story

All to communicate into the vulnerable souls of the Cadets the great lessons of sin and damnation great Literary, Musical, graphic Art can convey - and convince.

Years later some graduated cadets remembered the 'lesson' vividly.

Whether it did anything for their Souls, I cannot say.

West Point Teaching (8)

2011-08-24T14:24:41-06:00

Our Meetings as Professional Officers

If I had written this section before 1959 I would not have used the term 'professional' officers. I would have used simply 'Army Officers' leaving to the reader whom I was talking about - Commissioned Army Officers whose business was fighting wars when called upon by the President - Commander in Chief.

But during the time after 1956 after I had my teaching duties well in hand, I began to meet in evenings with classmates who taught, like me, in other departments - Social Sciences, Math, Physics.

The subject was not about our duties at West Point, but our reflection on just who we were - as junior (Captains) officers who had already had one war, Korea, under all our belts. Where were we going? Where was the Army going, that we were part of?

The intellectual roundtable discussions, involving 4-6 Classmates usually, were held in the homes of the officers, all of whom were married, and like us, had minor children.

There were searching questions, especially in light of the Korean War - which was unlike World War 1 or 2 - interstate wars, with the reality of the nuclear weapons, a powerful deterrent to simple (intellectually speaking) Conventional, win/lose wars. The ambiguity of 'Limited Wars' like Korea made us question what our role was, or should be.

During one of those sessions, one of my classmates brought in a newly published book by Harvard Political Scientist Samuel Huntington:

The Soldier and the State: The Theory and Politics of Civil-Military Relations.

It covered the history of Civil Military relationsships in American history, and the various ways both Politicians and Military men saw themselves and each other.

I will not go into the extensive depth of that study, but it had one powerful idea that grabbed my attention, and has been my touchstone all the rest of my years in Uniform.

That idea was that US Army Military officers are 'Professionals' in the sense that Lawyers and Doctors are professionals. Not just because they are 'good at' knowing and practicing either law or medicine. It is the idea that a Professional provides a Service to Society, both within the power and limits that society puts on those practices.

From another source of my study of my profession, a Soldier provides the Service of employing force or violence in the resolution of social (political) issues.

And while he uses Force and Violence, he also either curbs or modifies HOW he uses such force by the social, legal, cultural limits Americans put on such uses. Either explitly by orders, or implicitly by cultural norms. While nuclear strikes can destroy an enemy's military power, it can also kill large numbers of civilians and irradiate millions more.

And to the extent that, for America at least, there is always an 'object' or goal beyond war. And for the US it is never the blind assassination of another people. Even the dropping of the two nuclear bombs on Japan, killing almost 200,000 Japanese civilians was a very carefully considered decision, against the alternative ground invasion of Japan which would have cost America as many soldiers and marines, and still killed large numbers of civilians as they fought to prevent being taken over.

In retrospect I did not permit my angry, tearful, vengeful 15 surviving soldiers who fought for the top of Hill 347 in Korea, to kill any or most of the 192 Chinese prisoners of war - less because of the Geneva Convention, than my sense that to do so would have been 'Un-American.'

And just as Doctors have codes of ethics and Lawyers practice law as Professionals - they practice within the limits of a very American set of values. Values which slowly change, but which keep both professions within the boundaries of society. Ditto the US Military Professional.

So Huntington's book and thesis of 'Military Professionalism' helped me get a clear understanding of who I am, and, when asked by civilians right up to the civilian President as Commander in Chief, my advice always takes into account my perspective on my 'Professional' abilities and limitation. And that pertains just as much to my commanding my subordinates, as to my following the orders and missions given to me by my superiors.

Through those meetings between we 'Professionals' we hammered out, at night and on weekends, our professional role as we rose in rank and responsibilities for the rest of our careers

Thus I learned at West Point, as well as Taught. As much from my fellow officer-instructors, as from the Academic lessons.

West Point Teaching (10)

2011-08-24T16:36:38-06:00

LEAVING MY MARK

Over the four years that I taught at West Point - between the summer of 1955 through the summer of 1959, I became increasingly aware that my reputation as both a speaker and combat soldier grew among cadets.

I had one problem with that. Cadets in class would incessantly try to 'bait me' into going off the assigned topic, and repeat their wish to find out just how I led - and won - in the Korean War. Cadets have ever tried to get their instructors to spend time chatting about loosely, sometimes very loosly, related topics. So long as it delays or eliminates the day's lesson 'requirement' and certainly the graded quiz.

But in my case, as cadets came to know the military significance and weight of each of the combat ribbons I wore, they would bore in to get me to tell stories of combat that would illustrate a point of leadership, or fear, or reaction - in a profession they would soon enough join.

In short, my Reputation grew among the Corps of Cadets. A Warrior English Teacher.

The opportunity to clear the air once and for all, came during Football Season in 1959. Army was scheduled to play Notre Dame after a decade of that series being dropped because of both the increasing violence by the 'Subway Alumni' for Notre Dame that too often led to ugly incidents against Uniformed Cadets in New York stemming from the Polo Grounds. And that series had started overshadowing the Army-Navy Game which was supposed to be the pinnacle of the Service Series.

So current cadets in 1959 had no memory of that series, or, as I had, been witness 13 years before to the titanic battle between Army and ND that ended in a 0-0 tie.

So for some reason I never figured out - it may have been passionate statements I had made in 1st Class English about winning, that were circulated, I was invited, by cadets, to be the Main speaker at the Football Rally to be held inside the giant Washington Dining Hall with all 2,500 cadets present the night before the team left for South Bend.

I accepted, in part, because I had a sense that the pro forma rah rah attitude cadets had toward that pivotal game was less than what was needed to win.

So I prepared to make my appearance on the wooden 'PT Stand' that would be put right in the middle of the entryway where cadets would pour into the mess hall, and leave from it.

I asked a Classmate to 'rehearse' my key remarks, that would make this game a metaphor for combat in which will to win trumps everything else. I would make them in the 3d person even though I would be speaking about the passions I felt in my most extreme battles in Korea.

And then I did something unusual. The normal 'Pep Rally' from a raised 'PT Stand' platform, whether inside or outside so that the audience can see from 1 to 4 cheerleaders on the same stand, is usually accompanied by, of course, loud costumes, noise makers, sometime drums. And then a few remarks from the whomever is invited to the stand - like the Superintendent - then Rah Rah Rah cheerleading again.

I went out to the West Point Museum and got them to loan me a bona-fide Medivel Iron Battle Mace. So when the supper was over, and the cheerleading began, I was invited up to the stand where I would hold forth alone for the 5 or so minutes of my performance.

I started quietly but when I got to the first place when I really wanted to get their attention, I smashed down with the Mace on the edge of the wooden platform splintering it. THAT got their attention. And on the theme that they do not have a clue what they are in for Saturday with Notre Dame - I invoked comparisons with winning in combat, and then the titan football legends like the Gipper as ghosts hanging over West Point from both teams playing each other back to the turn of the century with broken hands, fractured faces - but battling to win, win, win. And I likened the Notre Dame way as the American public way, while the West Point way represented all the US Military way.

And in another twist I exhorted that winning 'spirit is not a laugh - spirit is not a shout' or a cutely labeled bed sheet hung from a window. That there were no pep rallies in Korea before taking a hill. That spirit can be utter silence and determination. The Corps needs a 'New Kind of Spirit' So I called the football team up from its 'Corps eating tables' with 2,500 Cadets in absolute silence staring at them the long walk coming forward. They said later they had felt immense pressure. The enlisted men waiters at the serving tables had tears running down their faces. My smash-down-with-mace and eloquent soaring rally speech was so powerful that the Corps of Cadets implored me to write down those same remarks (which was not taped by anyone) so they could put it in their Pointer Magazine about the 'New Kind of Spirit' - that speech is attached here as a PDF file duplicating the magazine cover and 2 and a half printed pages.

If you have good bandwidth, click on this 5mb PDF file Speech

If you can read a Word .doc file, click here Speech2

I was stunned to read in the cadet Pointer magazine deliered to every cadet room, where it was printed by the Editor "We of the First Class would like to add our humble bit of praise to the chorus of the entire Corps, by saying this speech is undoubtedly the most impressive we have heard during our three and a quarter years at the Academy."

Wow! What a tribute. And I received even a greater one. Red Reeder, one of the legendary football players who lost a leg at Normandy and helped coach the Football team and was at their table the night of the rally - I referred to him in my speech as one of the titans when, on Cullum Field at West Point, our own Red Reeder in the warm ups DROP kicked over the South goal posts. And George Gipp of Notre Dame did the same thing over the other end. Both of them were standing on the 50 yard line! Then the Gipper asked for four footballs and drop kicked all four over both goals before the game even started. And was dead at 25 six weeks later.

Reeder said my speech was the best he ever had heard to motivate a football team! That, coming from Colonel Red Reeder was a great tribute.

Well cest la guerre! In spite of my exhorations Army lost the game to Notre Dame that weekend in South Bend

But I think that was the greatest speech I ever made, in war or peace.

Goodby West Point

That was the last noteworthy thing I did while teaching at West Point. By spring we had new orders to go back into the operating Army. The normal rotation between being a leader in a combat unit, and an instructor, and a student. I was being assigned to the 27th Infantry Regiment - the 'Wolfhounds' in the 25th Division - the 'Tropic Lightning' - at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. Another chance to command troops.

So in June 1959 Patsy I, young David and even younger Rebecca were on our way to Hawaii - the island of Oahu. Where Patsy had been born at the old Tripler Hospital in 1929!

We had had a great three years at West Point.

But Aloha!

To continue with my Military Years click… NEXT, Hawaii Years (1)

West Point Teaching (9)

2011-08-28T09:33:25-06:00

The Wayne Company

West Point had a visitor's Guide Book before 1957, but it was not really very good, or interesting.

It was only available in selected places, one of which was the small, volunteer-staffed 'Information Center' and West Point museum. The Volunteers were the Senior Chapter of the Daughters, United States Army.

Two classmates of mine - Paul Gorman, who was instructing in the Department of Social Sciences while I was in the English Department, and Bill Ward, who had resigned his commission after his obligatory 5 year post-graduation active duty, and was in the investment business in New York City, teamed up with me to create The Wayne Company (yep, named after the Revolutionary War's Mad Anthony Wayne)

The stated purpose was that "The Wayne Company is a small private organization of West Point graduates and others whose active interest in the best public relations for USMA has prompted them to turn their extra-professional talents and time to the creation of salable publications truly representative of West Point."

It recognized that official government West Point did not have the funds to create, print, and distribute freely to the hundreds of thousand visitors to the Academy, and all the family members of cadets, and that commercial firms did not possess the expertise to do really authoritative guides or were always operating in West Point's best interests.

So we undertook to create printed booklets and even a three dimensional plastic map that educated the buyer on just how, geologically West Point was formed. And had vague plans to even write and publish small histories of West Point and of the Revolutionary War periods.

The first product was that we produced was 'The West Point Guide Book,' 32 pages, printed by the same Publisher - George Moore, who printed the cadet Pointer Magazine.

It had good maps and succinct explanations about cadet life and what West Point existed for.

Proceeds over costs went to the Daughters of the American Army organization which staffed the visitors' center and sold the Guides. So they made money for their various charitable activities.

Ike at West Point

While that first venture worked, and the whole project died when both Gorman and I moved on to other military assignments and left West Point in 1959, I undertook one 'historical' booklet myself for the Wayne Company.

I took note of the fact the visitors to West Point, especially after General Eisenhower was elected President in 1953 and was still in office by 1961, were curious about his having attended West Point.

So I researched and wrote a 16 page booklet, which even included 7 rare photographs of him AS a cadet and a copy of his signed 'Registration' on arrival June 14th, 1911.

There are only a few, very rare, copies of that Booklet in existance.

You can read it online here as a 10mb PDF file by clicking on ikeatwestpoint

And here, below is a short letter from Ike's Personal Secretary to the President at the White House May 28th 1959 to Bill Ward who was our Wayne Company General Manager. So what I wrote got the attention of the President of the United States!